Rear lights

[Buzzfagan]

I am in Texas and building my Manx style buggy and trying to decide on what tail lights to get. I have 4 round roughly 4.25" holes on the rear of my tub. I bought a Rebel wiring harness.

What should I run on the rear? And what is the best thing to do that will be street legal and pass the state inspection?

Do I run all 4 red lights or do I run two red for the tail lights and two for reverse lights? What about turn signals; will the red tail lights work for those also?

I know I would like for them to be LED if possible and legal/pass inspection and work with the Rebel harness if possible.

I also ran across these Maxima hybrid lights? Will those work for all 4 lights and work with the rebel wiring harness?

[Dale M.]

Pesonally I would run all 4 the same and and pair up left and right as tail with stop/turn as second element... If you want combos with backups and you mount them on slanted rear apron most of backup light will be pointed up and not much use... You state may require backup lights or maybe not, something to consider...

Just find some simple round LEDs with tail and stop/turn and about 40 or 50 tiny LEDs they look way more sexier than the 7 or 9 or so great big LEDs...

Go to GOOGLE IMAGES and use "LED Tail Lights" as search string, you can find about 1000 different designs...

Dale
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“Fear The Government That Wants To Take Your Guns" - Thomas Jefferson.

"Kellison Sand Piper Roadster" For Street & Show.
"Joe Pody Sandrover" Buggy with 2180 for Autocross (Sold)
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All suggestions and advice are purely my own opinion. You are free to ignore them if you wish ...

[cudabear]

Check out Speed Way motors. I found some cool 40s look tail lights with chrome bezels

[crsmp5]

if you need a back up light.. id use what old beetle people used on the rear bumper.. (mounting it in a way to turn it if required to look at engine in dark to fix on side of road is also great assit) imo more parking/brake lights you have the better.. 4 as parking, 2 for turns, 2 for brake will make most visable.. i dislike brake/turn sharing as you loose a brake light to one that now flashes..
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[heywebonya]

I used two pair of LED lights, very bright and spaced them similar to Corvette lights. I used both sets as red, and they are available everywhere

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[MrGoodtunes]

Since my buggy body is from the Mini-Camaro kit, I of course used Camaro tail lights. But stock Camaro had back-up lights for the inner pair, with outers' higher wattage fillament for brake AND turn signal. Like crsmp5, I wanted both outers to be stop lights that stay on while braking even if turn signal is in use. So I glued an amber trailer marker lens over the clear center lens for turn signal (and found matching red lenses for brake lights).

[heywebonya]

Remember to get an electronic flasher control for LEDs (or add a resistor). My tail lights are super bright!
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If I knew what I was doing; I wouldn't be building a buggy!

[Dale M.]

[Buzzfagan]

So are there two ways to do it? One with a resistor and one with some other kind of flasher?

[Dale M.]

[joescoolcustoms]

I run 1157 twin filament bulbs in the front and full LEDs in the rear. No problem at all and it does not flash fast. No resistor and no LED flasher.

Try it, if it does not work, you can change the flasher out for a LED flasher.
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[Buzzfagan]

What are the differences between the two ways? And any pros/cons of one over the other?

[crsmp5]

one is a bulb.. one is a led...

i dislike led.. too many items to fail vs a simple bulb... supposedly will never burn out.. too bad i see more screwed up led then i do normal lights...

pros for led..
brighter... good? brakes yes... parking.. no... dont want people to thing your riding your brakes in the dark

cons for led...
imo ugly.. not of proper era for the looks of a buggy.. set of old repop vett ones have more class..

cost.. a brick of 10 bulbs from napa is less then buying 2 bulbs on store floor... advance/autozone will not sell you packs of 10 unless you a garage... and again.. half the cost of 2 bulbs on store floor... hint hint.. always ask for box of 10.. never buy just the 2..

to the guy who converted his back up lights to turns via orange pieces... why not buy some orange colored bulbs?? how new cars have white ones that flash orange..
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[Dale M.]

[cudabear]

you can also add in a small socket and 12v bulb too produce a current draw causing the flasher to trip. just put it in a spot where it cant be seen flashing, works like a charm. put it inline going to rear turn signal. doesnt matter which side.

[joemama]

on my buggy, the body was cut like yours, with one round hole on each side. I found some led lights that fit that hole, and use a sort of rubber grommet to hold the lights in place. They combine running, turn, and brake, in one light. Harbor Freight sells them. I like not having screws holding the light on, as I can with a little effort, push them out to access my dual webers (when I had those on the buggy, I now have a single center mounted carb). The way I had wired my buggy, when I applied the brakes, it also made my front turn signals brighter, so I added a diode just above the split for the rear signals, and now the electricity for the rear brakes does not travel forward to the turn signals. I have had this set up for over 10 years, and its been trouble free.

[Buzzfagan]

So if I have regular incandescent bulbs in the front and LED's in the back will the one single electronic flasher work for both the regular incandescent bulbs in the front and the LED's in the rear?

I would like to get LED's in the front probably at some point but I am not sure if they have them to go in the housings I have in the front?? This is what I have currently for the front:

[Dale M.]

Yes you can combine LEDs and incandecents......Flashers dont really know... They either work with your combination or not....

YOu need to really research LEDs more, yes they have bulbs that will fit the VW fender lamp holder assembly...

https://www.superbrightleds.com

Dale
_________________
“Fear The Government That Wants To Take Your Guns" - Thomas Jefferson.

"Kellison Sand Piper Roadster" For Street & Show.
"Joe Pody Sandrover" Buggy with 2180 for Autocross (Sold)
============================================================
All suggestions and advice are purely my own opinion. You are free to ignore them if you wish ...

[GS guy]

Plug-in LED bulbs. Saw these on Gearz, went to the site and bookmarked 'em. I've read the plug-in LEDs can be dimmer than the regular IC bulbs, due to the uni-directional lighting nature of the small LEDs used. These "plasma" LEDs appear to fix that issue? Not cheap though.
https://secure.cougarpartscatalog.com/plasma2.html
Jeff
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[clonebug]